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Quality Of Leadership Counts
By Clarence Page, Tribune Media Services
DENVER -- Let's hear it for youth and inexperience.
It's going to be a little hard for Sen. John McCain to hold those qualities against Sen. Barack Obama after choosing little-known Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate.
After all, the vice president's only official job is to be one heartbeat away from the presidency. McCain's choice of Palin as the soon-to-be Republican nominee for the position raises intriguing questions, like: How much does experience count anyway?
If Obama's resume in national and foreign affairs is "thin," as his critics point out, you could read a newspaper through Palin's. She stands out in stark contrast to Sen. Joe Biden, Obama's running mate, a seasoned chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. At least, I see she holds a degree in journalism. I feel better about her already.
Besides, this campaign already has raised intriguing questions about how much experience should count in choosing a president or vice president. Bill Clinton offered one of the most significant punch lines of the week when he reminded Democrats in Denver that "Republicans said I was too young and too inexperienced to be commander in chief. Sound familiar?"
Of course. The crowd went wild. Cheers. Laughter. Applause. War whoops. It will be hard for anyone to say "You're no Bill Clinton" to Obama after Bill Clinton himself has called Obama another Bill Clinton.
Clinton punched a big hole through the question of whether a half-term in the Senate and eight years in the Illinois General Assembly offered Obama enough experience to lead the nation.
"It didn't work in 1992, because we were on the right side of history," Clinton continued. "And it won't work in 2008, because Barack Obama is on the right side of history."
Which side of history you end up on has less to do with experience, it appears, than with one's ability to grab hold of the spirit of the times and connect with masses of people. Clinton understood that when he ran his own winning "Change vs. More of the Same" campaign in 1992. He addressed that year's national economic anxieties more effectively than President George H.W. Bush did.
Leadership is most dramatically tested in a crisis. President Clinton presided over an economic boom and a drop in crime, yet presidents like him get less credit for leadership than, say, Franklin D. Roosevelt, who held us together through the Great Depression and a war.
Obama, a first-term senator, has more Washington experience than Abraham Lincoln, who became president after serving only one undistinguished term in the House. Yet Lincoln is forever remembered for leading this country through its biggest domestic crisis, the Civil War.
Obama's rapid rise owes much to his being in the right place and time with the right inspiring thoughts for the nation.
Even at the bottom of his local popularity, New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani rose up amid the chaos of the Sept. 11, 2001 , terrorist attacks to bark orders and offer a commanding, reassuring presence that resonated across the country. Four years later, when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, we searched for another Giuliani-like leader, from the White House to the governor's mansion to the mayor's office -- in vain.
At the time of Obama's game-changing speech at the 2004 Democratic convention, Democrats were ready for a new-generational alternative to the Reverends Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Obama captured that spirit and has managed to ride it all the way to his party's nomination.
Now McCain, like Sen. Hillary Clinton during the primaries, mocks Obama's celebrity and speechmaking skills, as if the substance or impact of those speeches didn't matter. It is through great speeches that great leaders seize the spirit of the times and, in many cases, become famous.
"What the naysayers don't understand is that this election has never been about me," Obama said in his nomination acceptance speech. "It's been about you!" The crowd noisily approved that observation. A key to good leadership is your ability to remember how much less important you are than your followers.
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E-mail Clarence Page at cpage(at)tribune.com, or write to him c/o Tribune Media Services, 2225 Kenmore Ave., Suite 114, Buffalo, NY 14207.
(c) 2008 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
This news arrived on: 08/30/2008
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Posted Comments:
09-03-2008 03:16
Sunshine49 wrote:
To Saviour
I guess I am a Republican because I voted for Ron Paul in the primaries. The one candidate who was for the American people and the Constitution as it is written. Not the way Liberal Supreme Court justices think it should be interpreted.
So you think that it is fine for Rev. Wright to preach to hundreds of people to hate whites and hate America. Since pornography is considered free speech, I guess that hate speech is acceptable too. Obama is the one who said that Wright was his long time friend, pastor and mentor. Now you want me to believe that Wright's hate speech for 20 years had no effect on Obama. Wise up! Obama has shown his true colors by his associations. A lot of us still believe that your associations form your character for good or evil. As the old saying goes, "You're known by the company you keep".
I don't think it was odd that McCain picked Palin. I read good reports about what she was doing in her state, months before he picked her for V.P. They hold a lot of the same views about the corruption in politics. You know, the kind that Obama is involved with in Illinois. She goes after the bad guys. She doesn't associate with them.
No one has told me what Obama's approval ratings are in Illinois yet. Of course that depends on how many blacks there are in Illinois, since 94% are voting for him because he's black. I guess that really qualifies him to be President. Now that is a "joke"
So you think that it is fine for Rev. Wright to preach to hundreds of people to hate whites and hate America. Since pornography is considered free speech, I guess that hate speech is acceptable too. Obama is the one who said that Wright was his long time friend, pastor and mentor. Now you want me to believe that Wright's hate speech for 20 years had no effect on Obama. Wise up! Obama has shown his true colors by his associations. A lot of us still believe that your associations form your character for good or evil. As the old saying goes, "You're known by the company you keep".
I don't think it was odd that McCain picked Palin. I read good reports about what she was doing in her state, months before he picked her for V.P. They hold a lot of the same views about the corruption in politics. You know, the kind that Obama is involved with in Illinois. She goes after the bad guys. She doesn't associate with them.
No one has told me what Obama's approval ratings are in Illinois yet. Of course that depends on how many blacks there are in Illinois, since 94% are voting for him because he's black. I guess that really qualifies him to be President. Now that is a "joke"
09-03-2008 00:52
Saviour wrote:
Palin's approval rating
Sunshine49, Palin's approval rating is 65% and sinking according to Gregg Erickson from Anchorage daily.
That 80% is a replubican lie, but you go ahead and believe them conservatives cause you're their zombile - forever under their spell. And as far as I know the Rev. Wright has the right to say what he darn pleases and he's not part of Obama campaign staff. So bringing Rev. Wright is really getting boring while you should be concern about why John McCain picked a little-known Alaska Gov.
I would be thinking "Is this some kinda joke?".
That 80% is a replubican lie, but you go ahead and believe them conservatives cause you're their zombile - forever under their spell. And as far as I know the Rev. Wright has the right to say what he darn pleases and he's not part of Obama campaign staff. So bringing Rev. Wright is really getting boring while you should be concern about why John McCain picked a little-known Alaska Gov.
I would be thinking "Is this some kinda joke?".
09-03-2008 00:06
Sunshine49 wrote:
To Snookie
Palin has an 80% approval rating in her own state. What's Obama's in Illinois. Maybe AnneB can tell us, since she is from Illinois and against Obama.
To Gumboboy
I wonder if Obama learned how to give a good speech from the Rev. Wright? He did listen to him for 20 years giving great speeches on how to hate white America! By the way, Palin is not the one who is blindly sending her son to Iraq and how do you KNOW that she didn't research what is going on. I just love the way you blindly ASSUME that you know more about her life than she does. You are another one who is arrogant in your ignorance!
To Texas Katie -- Read what I wrote to Gumboboy again. The same applies to you.
To Julie -- There you go again with your hate and prejudice! You, also are very arrogant in your ignorance.
All of you who blindly follow Obama because of his promises will be in for a rude awakening if he gets in. I hope you are ready for the next Depression. Economists agree that his giveaway programs and tax raises will destroy what's left of the economy. So you can follow your Messiah right into hell!
To Gumboboy
I wonder if Obama learned how to give a good speech from the Rev. Wright? He did listen to him for 20 years giving great speeches on how to hate white America! By the way, Palin is not the one who is blindly sending her son to Iraq and how do you KNOW that she didn't research what is going on. I just love the way you blindly ASSUME that you know more about her life than she does. You are another one who is arrogant in your ignorance!
To Texas Katie -- Read what I wrote to Gumboboy again. The same applies to you.
To Julie -- There you go again with your hate and prejudice! You, also are very arrogant in your ignorance.
All of you who blindly follow Obama because of his promises will be in for a rude awakening if he gets in. I hope you are ready for the next Depression. Economists agree that his giveaway programs and tax raises will destroy what's left of the economy. So you can follow your Messiah right into hell!
09-02-2008 22:35
Julie wrote:
Crone
There you go again with the hate and predigest.
09-02-2008 22:18
ROSE wrote:
OBAMA WILL WIN
THANK GOD FOR LOOKING OUT FOR HIS PEOPLE' JUST AS ISAREL FROM EGYPT,, SO HE IS DOING FOR US. OBAMA IS AIMING TO BE PEOPLE PRESIDENT, NOT A BLACK PEOPLE PRESIDENT WHO WITH BIDEN WILL BRING US BACK TO THE LIFE GOD HAS FOR US. BIDEN BEING AARON. I'M PRAYING FOR THE PALIN FAMILY. IT DOESN'T MEAN WE DON'T LOVE OUR CHILDREN, BUT WE DON'T HAVE TO PUBLICALLY SPREAD IT OVER THE WORLD. SHE IS STILL A CHILD AND BAD ENOUGH TO BE
PREGNANT AND NOT BE MARRIED. IT'S ANOTHER TO ANNOUNCE IT TO THE WORLD. I THINK THIS WILL HAVE
AFFECT ON HER LIFE. THIS IS SELFISH TO WANT A POSITION SO BADLY THAT SHE WILL USE HER DAUGHTER
PREGNANT AND NOT BE MARRIED. IT'S ANOTHER TO ANNOUNCE IT TO THE WORLD. I THINK THIS WILL HAVE
AFFECT ON HER LIFE. THIS IS SELFISH TO WANT A POSITION SO BADLY THAT SHE WILL USE HER DAUGHTER
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